The publication series “Common BIM Requirements 2012” is the result of a broad-based development project entitled COBIM. The need for these requirements arises from the rapidly growing use of building information modeling in the construction industry.

Visualization can be divided into two main forms. The first is a traditional photo-like rendering, which describes the designer's vision of the design solutions. The second form is a technical illustration. It serves as the communication tool for the design team, client, project management and construction site. The key advantages of utilizing the BIM-based visualizations are the quality assurance of the design, easy comparison between different design alternatives, improved communication and support for the development and marketing.